EPA Hikes Estimate of Cost to Remove Drinking-Water Radon

Average water bills for some families would have to be increased by as much as $242 a year to reduce radon in drinking water and prevent 84 cancer deaths a year, the Environmental Protection Agency reported Friday.

The $242 annual increase would hit families in rural areas served by water systems that rely more on underground wells and have fewer than 100 customers.

EPA officials calculated that customers of large systems supplied primarily from surface water would pay an average of $5 more a year.

After what it called one of its most comprehensive cost-benefit analyses ever, the EPA acknowledged that the radon program would cost 50% more than it originally estimated.

Instead of $180 million a year when the regulations were first proposed, the EPA said Friday that the total annual costs including amortizing $1.6 billion in new technology to meet the standards would be $272 million a year, or roughly $3.2 million for each life saved.

By comparison, the agency said, full compliance with its voluntary program for reducing indoor radon pollution in the air could prevent up to 2,200 cancer fatalities a year at an estimated cost of $700,000 per life saved.

The EPA issued the proposed regulations in 1991 under the 1986 Safe Drinking Water Act and is under orders from a federal judge in Oregon to make them final by April 30, 1995.

But the regulations have become the focal point in a debate between the Clinton Administration and critics in both parties over the cost-effectiveness of environmental standards.

Radon--a colorless, odorless, radioactive gas occurring naturally in the soil and ground water--is the second-leading cause of lung cancer in the United States, behind cigarette smoking.

The EPA estimates that about 19 million people are exposed to the gas at a level above its proposed drinking water standards and another 15 million at a level above its voluntary indoor air pollution limits.